Teaching Learning Cycle

1. Teaching and Learning Cycle:
Writing a recount
Theme: Our city, Melbourne
Level: S1
Resource Guide
Jessie Sambell and Leah Kontos
Blackburn English Language School

2. Learning context
Blackburn English Language School delivers full-time, intensive English language programs to newly
arrived students across the North-Eastern Victoria Region (NEVR). The school provides primary and
secondary English language acquisition programs to students from a range of culturally and
linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The schooling cycle operates around a term-based program. As new students enrol each term,
classes are formed centred on either age and English language competency or a combination of
these two factors.
This teaching resource was implemented with a beginner level class at the school. The students
were aged between 12-14 years old with an English level of S1.1 – S1.2.
The recount unit based on the Melbourne city was completed within a 2 week period post excursion
with approximately 20 hours of teaching time dedicated to the unit.

3. Building knowledge of the field
• Introduce the big ideas for the unit – learning about Melbourne City
• Explain the final outcome. For example, “We will write a text that
recounts what we experienced in the city”.
• Show students images of famous landmarks from around the world.
• Label or match pictures of landmarks with descriptive vocabulary.
• Write new vocabulary in word books for future reference.
• Write sentences about famous landmarks using new vocabulary in
gap fill activity.
Building the field of knowledge is an important stage as it establishes students’ shared understanding of the
topic and the unit goals. Recount genre is quite important in a New Arrival Program as newly arrived students
need to be able to recount events orally and in written form. It is important to explain to the students from the
beginning of the unit the expectations and the final outcome. When students are aware of the unit objectives,
they can understand how each of the tasks contribute to the final outcome.

4. Building knowledge of the field
• Participate in the Melbourne city
excursion.
During the City excursion, teachers and students
visit six landmarks in the city and complete a
range of short activities in their student booklet.
These activities relate to understanding why the
landmark is important in Melbourne. Students
take photos at each landmark to refer to in class,
and the teacher takes video footage at each of
the landmarks to stimulate discussions and elicit
vocabulary in future classes.

5. Building knowledge of the field
• Reflect on the city excursion by thinking of
adjectives to describe the places and the
students’ experiences (can use online Web
tools, such as Answer Garden).

6. Building knowledge of the field
• Create a word wall with
participants/processes/ circumstances,
explicitly introducing metalanguage for
functional grammar. Use ‘wh’ questions to
elicit answers.
In a functional approach, a simple sentence,
consisting of a single clause, is broken up into
participant, process, and circumstance. The
participant is the who/what, the process is the
verb (what happened), and the circumstance is
where, when, how etc. These are colour-coded to
support students in identifying the different parts
in the sentence. Metalanguage for talking about
functional language is gradually introduced
through questioning.

7. Building knowledge
of the field
• Complete oral video recount
in pairs. Refer to the word
wall to support sentence
construction.
Students practise using the new
vocabulary orally before writing,
gradually moving across the register
continuum from more spoken like to
more written like.
Watch the video at:
https://victesol.vic.edu.au/index.php/teaching-and-learning-
cycle-project/teaching-and-learning-cycle-units-of-work/units-of-
work-secondary/#tab-id-3

8. Building knowledge of the field
• Write the first draft of the recount with
the focus on applying learnt vocabulary.
Refer to word wall and new word book.
Teachers can support students to move from
every day/ common vocabulary to more formal
and technical terms. For example, if a student
writes “the museum is important because we
can see many things”, the teacher can
paraphrase this and introduce technical terms,
such as “the museum is important because it
has a range of historical artifacts”.

9. Supported reading
• Participate in modelled and shared reading sessions
using fiction and non-fiction texts related to the city
(e.g. narrative about travelling to a city, information
report about history of Melbourne, descriptive text
about Melbourne City.).
• Complete pre, during and post reading tasks (oral
summary of text prior to reading, cloze, sentence
making, building word banks of nouns/adjectives,
etc.)
Providing an oral summary
prior to reading allows
students to focus on other
areas of language such as
using the new vocabulary
or sentence structures.

10. Supported reading
The aim here is to improve students’ ability to process a text and become more confident with their
reading. In these sessions, the students are provided comprehension activities such as literal questions and
answers to locate the information from the text, vocabulary activities such as vocabulary cells and charts
with word meanings, parts of speech and simple sentence making. The teacher models reading strategies,
rhythm, and expectations for reading a text. The teacher provides an opportunity for students to see and
hear reading strategies. Different genres can highlight how texts are organised differently to express
particular purposes.
• Complete shared reading of a narrative text about an excursion to the city. Identify
and discuss how the language in a recount is different to the narrative.
• Introduce metalanguage to talk about language features found in a recount and
narrative (or draw on students’ prior knowledge). Complete Venn diagram to show
differences between genres.

11. Learning about the
genre
• Provide students with a recount cut into
paragraphs. Students sequence the
recount in pairs and explain orally or
annotate choices, referring to the
language in the text.
• Identify and highlight the past tense
verbs in the sentences. Students write
the present tense corresponding verb.
• Practise pronunciation and spelling of
new words as these arise appropriate for
the class level (e.g. caught/ bought).

12. Learning about
the genre
• Provide students with cut up
sentences including
participant, process, and
multiple circumstances
following the functional
language colour-coding.
• Students create sentences
with the cut up parts of
language in pairs or small
groups.
Watch the video at:
https://victesol.vic.edu.au/index.php/teaching-and-learning-
cycle-project/teaching-and-learning-cycle-units-of-work/units-of-
work-secondary/#tab-id-2

13. Learning about the genre
Cut up sentences scaffold students to construct simple sentences,
and to also learn that there is more than one way of structuring a
sentence.
Giving opportunities to students to play and experiment with
language through hands on activities and games can support
students to take risks with writing.
• Students write sentences to add to their
draft once they have constructed
sentences.

14. Learning about the genre: using functional
language
On Wednesday I went to the Melbourne Museum with my class
Process
Who?
What
happened ? Where? With who?
When?
Participant Circumstance
A simple sentence consists of a single clause which is broken up into participant, process, and circumstance.
These are colour-coded to support students in identifying the different parts in the sentence. Students are
supported to add more detail to their sentence with simple questioning.

15. Supported writing
• Model how parts of the sentence can move
within a sentence. Students create two different
sentences combinations from the cut up
language.
• Jointly edit a text, adding in circumstances on IWB
or using document camera/hover camera.
• Students edit their own text adding circumstances
to their sentences.

16. Independent writing
• Independently type recount about city experience on
laptops, referring to previous drafts.
• Students highlight the key language features focused
on in their text.
• Use a simplified rubrics for self-reflection, peer
feedback and teacher feedback. Refer to the language
in the rubrics to reflections and support peer-
assessment.
• Provide feedback using the rubrics template.
• Reflect on learning throughout the unit. Show
improvements from first draft to final draft.

17. Independent writing
• Multiple revisions and drafts support students to
apply what they have learned after each lesson.
• During this stage, some students may still require
support, and at this time the teacher is able to work
with individual students to provide differentiated
support.

18. Independent writing
Using word processor enables students to easily edit their work.
During this time, students may need to be taught formatting skills
(indenting for paragraphs, double spacing, writing name, date, using
headers and footers etc.).
Highlighting is a way for students to individually edit their work.
Feedback is given to students orally with reference to the comments
and the rubrics. Providing one-on-one feedback is effective with EAL
students as the teacher is able to rephrase or repeat information
where necessary. Students are also able to pick up on the tone of
voice which can assist in their comprehension.
Reflection allows for students to see the progress they have achieved
and to feel proud of their learning. During this time, new goals can
be formed for future learning.

19. Teacher reflections
Initially the role of the teacher was to lead the instructions by providing
explicit teaching and models of the genres about their use and patterns of
language. As the teacher moved into the different stages of the teaching
and learning cycle and the students used the more written-like language,
the students started taking more responsibility for using the language
independently, taking risks with their sentences and identifying the
groupings in the sentences. It was visible that the students were able to
move the circumstances of place in the beginning of the sentences or at
the end and positioned the reader to see the things described in a certain
way. Students experienced success with their independent construction
and it maximised their confidence and participation in the classroom
activities. As a result, students were able to write their own recount and
express their own ideas and clauses. It was an unforgettable experience as
all the students in the classroom were proud of their work and ready for
the next set of challenges with their writing and reading tasks.